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If you have insurance, they will cover it (unless you are under-insured).

If you did not have insurance - you've made your bed.

I pay several thousand dollars annually in home insurance that will cover replacement of my home an dcontents - If you don't - you've made your bed.

If you can't afford insurance - you should be on an antenna at most.

If you can afford it and still don't have it - no pitty.

Those who lost everything, who cares about a satellite box anyway. A couple of hundred dollars is nothing to think about in those times.

But you cannot rake a company over the coals for a possibly fabricated story about hypothetical people for hypothetical losses that are not the company's responsibility. Look at real true facts and work from there.

There is nothing in my house for which I do not have replacement responsibility. If it's borrowed, if it's leased, if i bought it, if it's destroyed while in my posession, it's my responsibility, not the provider's.

Buck up America, take responsibility, don't ask for a company, or the government out of the goodness of their heart to take on your responsibility - REMEMBER - they have no heart, only people have hearts.

Maybe your friends and neighbors will (and should) help, but demanding help is selfishness and greed - you become a leech off society.

Maybe the real truth will show Dish waiving some of the fees, that would be magnanimous of them, but NO ONE should demand it - more selfishness and greed.

If there was an actual person in Joplin who had lost their receiver(s) in the tornado participating here I'm sure the DishIRT people would be glad to take their information via PM and do whatever DISH can do for that customer.

I don't see a reason for DishIRT to get publicly involved in speculation about what might happen when a customer calls in to report the loss of their equipment. They are here to help customers, not debate policy.

Back on page one of this thread someone mentions that the message is posted on the Dish FB page. I don't do teeney-bopper fads so I won't be going there, but if it were policy a DIRT could post it here without speculation.

Most people JUST DON'T GET IT. A lot of these people LOST everything including their JOBS, their houses and potentially some friends and family. This devistated the city. Minor expenses now become Major problems. Let's go over how this might be going down for some of the people in Joplin. Your House.. gone, your cars... gone.... your Job... gone.. No severance pay... no last paycheck.... Your now living on credit cards and the help of others. Insurance... got it... but how long before I get money. How long for adjustors to do their job. Your now staying w/ friends / relatives etc. NO new income coming in right now. It hits you now, you have to start calling the phone company, the gas company, the cable/satellite company, etc. Dish answers the phone and when you say your house was destroyed and you need to terminate service, they say fine, we will charge that credit card $$$ which is the same credit card you NEED to use to keep your family going because the receivers were destroyed. THE SMALL THINGS ADD UP. When a company like dish or direct can help.....just do it. Show some compassion.

Back on page one of this thread someone mentions that the message is posted on the Dish FB page. I don't do teeney-bopper fads so I won't be going there, but if it were policy a DIRT could post it here without speculation.

Since there is no link to where it is on DISH's Facebook it is hard to say ... but there are a lot of comments on Facebook that are not made by DISH. It was probably in some other user's comments.

Most people JUST DON'T GET IT. A lot of these people LOST everything including their JOBS, their houses and potentially some friends and family. This devistated the city. Minor expenses now become Major problems.

Yes ... anyone here lose their home in Joplin? Has anyone here been asked to pony up the dough for a missing receiver? Anyone? Anyone?

Those people actually affected ARE taking care of the more pressing problems.

I still don't get an expectation that Dish or any other national company absorb the loss of leased equipment. Maybe the big picture is difficult to see?

Tornado damage is only one disaster loss type. Here's the big picture for April and May for this one type of loss:

AIR Worldwide of Boston estimates insured losses from the April 22-28 tornadoes in the Southeast at between $3.7 billion and $5.5 billion. Hartwig said that the past week's storms in Joplin, Mo., and in other states may add an additional $2 billion or more, including $1 billion in Joplin alone.

But that's only only one type of natural disaster affecting Americans right now! For instance, there's flooding in Montana:

South Dakota appealed for bulldozers and operators and called up 200 more National Guard troops on Sunday in a race to finish levees before heavy Missouri River flows reach the capital, officials said.

The U.S. government plans to step up releases from several dams along the Missouri River in early June to relieve pressure on reservoirs swollen by heavy rains and melting winter snowcaps from Montana through North and South Dakota.

South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard on Sunday said he would call up additional troops and sought bulldozers and operators to support construction crews, but urged residents of Pierre and Fort Pierre to be prepared for the worst.

"While we will work urgently around the clock to get these levees constructed, individuals must assume the worst, that the levees may not be completed in time and if completed they may not hold," Daugaard said.

Then if you want another type of disaster to talk about, how about this:

A partially contained wildfire in a rural area of Southern California was threatening homes Saturday, forestry officials said.

...About 400 homes around the lake were evacuated and 100 were considered threatened Friday night, Kern County fire officials told the Los Angeles Times.

If you search "wildfire' on Google News you'll also find stories about homes lost in the past two months in the Southwest and the Southeast. (I started up my Fire season 2011 begins thread in February and am remiss in keeping it up.)

I believe in a flood, you have plenty of time and warning to remove your furniture, satellite equipment. Same with a hurricane. I highly doubt with 5 to 24 MINUTES of warning, you are going to be concerned with saving anything except your life and your family.

I every ONE of the above examples, there is time to remove items from your home (except perhaps the people in immediate danger from wildfire).

I believe in a flood, you have plenty of time and warning to remove your furniture, satellite equipment. Same with a hurricane. I highly doubt with 5 to 24 MINUTES of warning, you are going to be concerned with saving anything except your life and your family.

I every ONE of the above examples, there is time to remove items from your home (except perhaps the people in immediate danger from wildfire).

All I can tell you is that my in-laws had less than 15 minutes to grab some photos and valuables before they had to leave because of a flood. In less than an hour the water reached the ceiling of the 2nd story along with the mud and the heating oil.

They lost most everything though the house was cleaned up and remodeled. No time to move the refrigerator. The TV and other small appliances really were not on "the save at any risk" list.

As someone whose been the guy in charge for local government, I can tell you it's rare that people move their stuff. If you have some lead time like with hurricanes today people board up windows, but they don't gather up the small appliances.

"In a hundred years there'll be a whole new set of people."
"Always poke the bears. They sleep too much for their own good."

For those of you here saying that Dish should just absorb the cost and pay for all lost receivers in natural disasters. Please don't come back here whining and b**ching when your Dish bill goes up next time, because guess who will end up having to cover those lost costs...yep YOU! So by saying that Dish should just eat it, then I say next rate hike, you should just eat it!

For those of you here saying that Dish should just absorb the cost and pay for all lost receivers in natural disasters. Please don't come back here whining and b**ching when your Dish bill goes up next time, because guess who will end up having to cover those lost costs...yep YOU! So by saying that Dish should just eat it, then I say next rate hike, you should just eat it!

First off, Directv and Dish Network for YEARS GAVE equipment away that WAS OWNED not LEASED. People forget what dish and direct are really selling.... IT is a MONTHY programming subscription. W/O a box, you can't get it. They need users to HAVE boxes as much as the users do. W/O a box, people won't subscribe to their service. People want to compare a leased reciever to a leased car, a leased appliance, those comparisons are fundamentally flawed. You lease a car from FORD or CHEVY and not from a gas company like Shell gas. When you lease a car from Ford, you don't agree to put $$$ of shell gas in that car per month. Ford gets no money back per month from Shell because you put their brand of gas in it. Same way with appliances. You don't lease a washer from TIDE w/ the agreement that you will put $$$ of tide in there per month. Name me any other monthly subscription service that you Lease equipment from.

First off, Directv and Dish Network for YEARS GAVE equipment away that WAS OWNED not LEASED.

I paid for my owned equipment up front. At the time there was a rebate plan that refunded the cost of the equipment by reducing the monthly bill for a couple of years.

Perhaps you know more about your own service provider than DISH. DISH doesn't give away receivers for free. Everything for the past few years has been leased or sold at a retail price.

They need users to HAVE boxes as much as the users do. W/O a box, people won't subscribe to their service.

Which is why they lease their boxes ... to make getting the service more affordable. They DO NOT give away their boxes. It is more important for DISH to stay in business so they can continue to collect monthly subscriptions. Giving away receivers would raise the cost of doing business to the point of putting them out of business.

Name me any other monthly subscription service that you Lease equipment from.

Do you have a monthly subscription to Shell gas? Pay it whether or not you use their fuel? It seems that irrelevant comparisons abound!

The commitment that DISH Network subscribers make when agreeing to lease equipment is the point here. If one doesn't like that commitment they can find another provider. The era of giving out free receivers and recouping the cost in monthly revenue is OVER ... it ended a long time ago. Look around - you are more likely to find service providers with an upfront equipment charge or required lease than anyone giving anything away.

First off, Directv and Dish Network for YEARS GAVE equipment away that WAS OWNED not LEASED. People forget what dish and direct are really selling.... IT is a MONTHY programming subscription. W/O a box, you can't get it. They need users to HAVE boxes as much as the users do. W/O a box, people won't subscribe to their service. Name me any other monthly subscription service that you Lease equipment from.

There is so much wrong with your statements it is hard to know where to begin. Remember you are posting to people who have had Dish and or Direct for many many years, myself included. Dish has never given away receivers, especially in the era of DVR's.

You want examples? Many rent their water heater from their oil company, while getting automatic delivery - a subscription. Many rent their modem while subscribing to their internet provider. For years people rented their phone from the phone companies. The electronic rental company here will rent you new movie releases (programming) when they first come out, only if you rent their Blu-ray player. (Receiver)

I want to make it clear on a couple of points. One if the user wants to continue service with new equipment, I have no problem with dish requiring a new contract to REPLACE the equipment. If they want just cancel because of having no house, I can see maybe still charging the early termination charge (even though I would wave it). My problem is when you add on charges because they can't return the equipment because of a natural dissaster. Dish Network needs to go thru the "give 'Em the pickle" training!!!

There is so much wrong with your statements it is hard to know where to begin. Remember you are posting to people who have had Dish and or Direct for many many years, myself included. Dish has never given away receivers, especially in the era of DVR's.

Sorry to break it to you but Dish has GIVEN RECEIVERS AWAY. When I still had C band years ago, dish was running promo mailings GIVING away 2 reciever setups to get people to switch. I had dish by the way. But it was a loooong time ago. I had the first DVR dish EVER offered. The dishplayer 7100. I had it before it could even record. I got it so early on that it didn't even always buffer. When you hit the the pause, it had to activate the buffer. I ended up leaving dish after the dishplayer 7100/7200 debacle.

4 pages and 60 + posts on something that shouldn't even be a debate.. Based on hearsay, with no proof, and a handful of people that immediately assume companies should give things away in a disaster.

Many companies do give quite a few things during disasters, most don't try and go around and say "look what I did", if it gets some publicity without them going out of there way to do it, and they get some kudos, more power to them.

However, a few hundred dollar sat receiver, when most people don't have a house, some people are missing, hundreds dead in severe weather, and there is a debate on whether Dish should replace them for nothing, this is the least of these people's worries.

Furniture, Cars, homes, riding lawn mowers, add whatever you want....those are big ticket items. We are talking about cheap satellite receivers. Many of which are fully depreciated. We were talking about public relations and the effect it will have on DISH. To replace receivers for these customers who pay monthly for service and can go where ever they want for "TV", I would replace those leased receivers for free if I were in charge at DISH.

At whose expense would you do this? Your own salary? Your employees salaries? The receivers have to be paid for... so if you are giving away replacements and waiving fees for non-returned lease receivers... someone at the company has to pay for that.

Maybe you would just raise the price on the bill the next year to recoup your losses on paying for those replacements?

What could it possibly cost them?

Money... and potentially lots of it if there are a lot of receivers to be replaced.

Some people are behaving as if they think companies just have piles of money sitting around.

Why can't these people pay to replace their own receivers if it costs so little? On the one hand some are saying it is major devastation to have to pay for a lost receiver... on the other it is "cheap" so why can't Dish pay? You can't have it both ways.

I see it like the electric meter. It is owned by the electric company. Never heard of the utility charging the customer for the cost of a new electric meter lost to a disaster.

Not a good example. You don't lease your power meter... You pay for electricity. The meter determines how much you use, so they know how much to bill you... It behooves them to make sure you have a working meter installed!

Dish doesn't charge you to calculate your bill each month... and you don't have to buy them a new calculator if theirs breaks.

Remind me to NEVER move next to you. First, with regards to the mower, I would be more worried about my neighbor and their well being and HELPING them get back on their feet rather than some stupid lawnmower I let them borrow.

Sorry... Where did I say I didn't care and wouldn't be concerned about my neighbor? The two are not mutually exclusive!

I can care about my neighbor and offer to help them... but how does my yard get mowed?

I live in a HOA that sends out nasti-grams if you don't mow your yard on schedule. So... say I've loaned my mower to a neighbor who loses it in a storm... then I can't mow my yard and I can't afford to buy a new mower either... so now I can't mow my yard, the HOA sends me nasty letters and threatens me if I don't.

Everything is connected... You want your Dish receiver replaced for free... but you don't care that you lost your neighbor's mower and you are causing him trouble that will cost him money.

Companies that go above and beyond will build loyality with current and potential customers.

You're kidding, right?

The same people who complain that Dish is robbing them when the price of service goes up $2 per month? These same people will be "loyal" customers to Dish forever because Dish ate the cost of a lost receiver?

This forum is filled with people who have been 5-10 year Dish customers who threaten to move to DirecTV or cable to save a few bucks a month for a year... so I seriously doubt any of them will remember that Dish forgave them a receiver lost to storm damage.

Most people JUST DON'T GET IT. A lot of these people LOST everything including their JOBS, their houses and potentially some friends and family. This devistated the city. Minor expenses now become Major problems. Let's go over how this might be going down for some of the people in Joplin. Your House.. gone, your cars... gone.... your Job... gone.. No severance pay... no last paycheck.... Your now living on credit cards and the help of others. Insurance... got it... but how long before I get money. How long for adjustors to do their job. Your now staying w/ friends / relatives etc. NO new income coming in right now. It hits you now, you have to start calling the phone company, the gas company, the cable/satellite company, etc. Dish answers the phone and when you say your house was destroyed and you need to terminate service, they say fine, we will charge that credit card $$$ which is the same credit card you NEED to use to keep your family going because the receivers were destroyed. THE SMALL THINGS ADD UP. When a company like dish or direct can help.....just do it. Show some compassion.

We get it. We also get personal responsibility.

ALL of these people who have been devastated have far more things to worry about than their Dish Network... and to be fair, no one in this thread has actually proven that Dish has forced anyone to pay for a lost receiver yet.

Meanwhile... IF these people are insured, then their Dish receivers will be covered by insurance... IF these people are NOT insured, then that's a choice they made... to save money... and they don't get a free pass for not having insurance.

I don't think Dish is harassing people over this... someone has just stirred up this argument on the internet.

I'm just arguing that IF it comes to pass... I would be grateful if Dish waived such fees, but I wouldn't expect it. They don't owe me that. People sure seem to have a sense of entitlement about things... but then when it comes time to pay for something, they don't want to pay for it!

There's a very real "I want to be covered, but I don't want to pay for other people's problems" vibe going on in this country right now. It's amazing.

I suppose we could move to a world in which Dish, plus car, house, furniture, refrigerator, vacuum, etc. companies replaced items whenever there was a disaster/fire etc. Then we wouldn't need homeowners insurance. Of course, the prices of those items would rise by an amount that would probably work out to be just about the same as the old insurance since now all of those companies would be supplying replacements, hiring claims adjusters etc. Seems like it would work out about the same only now a victim would have maybe 50 claims adjusters to deal with instead of 1 or 2.

Of course, if one or more of those companies wants to help out, that's OK with me. And I would expect the homeowners insurance adjustment to be reduced by the value that the other company helps out with. Again, seems kind of the same to me.

First and foremost, we hope the lost or damaged pieces of equipment are the biggest issues you have during a time like this. To us, that would be a blessing.

DIRT is here to help you with regard to your DISH Network gear, and we will work quickly and to the best of our ability to provide you with comfort and piece of mind. You have enough to worry about, and we will handle the rest. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this disaster.

PM any member of DIRT and we will resolve your issues quickly with regard to this.

Well you certainly don't own your electric meter do you? I don't own mine and I can't disconnect it or tamper with it. When it goes bad, the electric company replaces it. And they get a check from me every month. The cost of that meter is in the electric rate.

The bottom line is this, SD receivers are still the majority. They have been fully depreciated. It would cost DISH more in bad publicity than it would cost to replace it for free. Heck a 625 goes for $50 nowadays. The moment DISH starts to jam people for early terminations or not returning a satellite receiver that has probably been blown into the next county, they will pay a steep price in customer relations.

We are talking 2000 buildings/homes were damaged/destroyed in Joplin. If DISH has 20% of the market, that's 400 full replacements. Even if it cost DISH $600 per home, it's only $240,000. This amount is nothing to a multi-BILLION dollar corporation that profited $500 million last quarter. Pennies.

Any cable company that caught onto this would exploit this in full page ads in the newspaper once things start to settle down.